Bullied
by WritingIsMyLoveInLife
Summary: Keith gets a call from his boyfriend when Lance is supposed to be in class


Keith was interrupted from his studying my his phone buzzing for the third time in ten minutes. He reached deep into his bag to figure out who was calling him and blinked in confusion when he saw that Lance was calling him.

He accepted the call quickly, wondering if Lance's afternoon class had been canceled or it was that late already.

"Lance?" His was confused but warm. "Why aren't you in class right now babe?"

There was silence on the other side of the call and Keith frowned, pulling the phone away from his ear and looking at his phone and when he saw that the call was still going he placed the phone back against his ear and spoke again. "Lance? Babe are you okay? What's wrong?"

Keith was beginning to wondering if Lance was even there when he heard the unmistakable sound of someone sobbing into their arms and he instantly started packing up his stuff and getting ready to leave the quiet little cafe down the street from Lance's school. "Lance, _mí amor,_ please, tell me what is wrong? I'm gonna come get you, stay on the phone with me okay?"

Keith was out the door in seconds and running down the street till he got to Altean University in record time. "Are you in the bathroom near your class?" He asked a bit breathlessly.

Lance whimpered a soft affirmative and Keith beeline for the room he was talking about, knowing enough about the school to know exactly where Lance was.

He walked into the bathroom and was quick to walk right over to where Lance was curled up next to the sink and collapse next to his sobbing boyfriend. He gently pulled Lance's phone out of his tight grip and replaced it with his fingers instead. "Hey babe, its okay, I'm here."

Lance quickly looked up and Keith gasped at the shining black eye and bloody nose his boyfriend now sported. Lance's skin had been flawless when they had left the house this morning but Keith didn't have any time to think about it as Lance collapsed into his arms sobbing harshly.

Keith pulled him into his arms and ran his hands up and down his back comfortingly, and gently combed the sobbing boys hair back from his face. "Lance…" he whisperer softly before shaking his head and starting to stand up.

Lance whimpered and clung to Keith trying to stay put.

"Babe, let's go to the car and go home okay? Get an ice pack for you to put on your eye and nose and get you comfortable. Then I wanna know what happened and who I have to kill."

Lance let Keith pull him up and pull his hood up over his head but as soon as Keith pulled him outside into the hall he pulled away slightly. Keith was confused until he noticed the three jocks standing down at the end of the hall, watching lance with eagle eyes. He paid them no mind though until they were walking past them and one of them stuck out a foot to trip Lance and mumbled under their breath 'freaky fag'.

Keith looked up from where he had caught Lance from falling on his face and looked to the guy standing in front of him. He was a good two inches shorter than them but he wasn't afraid at all. He had seen a professor friend of theirs just outside the door and knew if they started anything he wouldn't be to blame. "Why don't you go pick on someone your own size dipshit." he said in a low voice.

The leader of the group laughed. "And what are you gonna do pipsqueak? Stand up for your weak, whipped boyfriend here? Told him to get his act together and come let me fuck him senseless, like any slut should be if he's gonna be a fag like that."

Keith's gaze grew murderous and Lance reached out to stop him with a soft pleading whisper of his name. "And maybe you should stop being a closeted prick and man up, get over your insecurities there buddy. Or do you not compare to the norm and are afraid to show your dick to anyone?"

The guy bristled and took a step towards Keith, first clenching at his side. "What? You wanna be beat into submission you twink?"

Keith continued on like he hadn't heard the boy. "Does all this aggression come from wanting to be put into your place? Pounded into the mattress so hard you forget your own name? Or is that too feminine for your friends to hear and you wanna keep this quiet and to yourself and take it out on others inste-"

Keith didn't get to finish his entrance as the older boys first was suddenly swinging at his head. Keith expected to be decked but someone caught the boys first and gripped it tight.

"Keith, Andrew, what is going on here?"

Keith glanced over to see Lance's favorite teacher and his older brother, Takashi Shirogane standing next to them. "Hey Shiro, what's the schools take on bullying for sexual orientation?"

"Expulsion." Shiro was quick to say, while Andrew paled faster then Keith had ever seen. "Is that what happened Keith?"

"We were just joking around Mr Shirogane!" Andrew and his friend started protesting quickly and loudly. Shiro was quick to shush them.

"I'm asking my brother and Lance," he said, the edge in his voice made it clear that the three were to not say another word and Keith smiled as the three boys paled at the word brother.

Keith gently lifted Lance's face to show Shiro and Shiro's frown deepened and his gaze grew even darker. "You three will be getting called into the Dean's office, names and ids please?"

Shiro quickly jotted down the three boys information and then let them go, knowing the dean would call them into his office and then turned to Keith and Lance. "Let's get him into my office and you can clean him up."

"Thanks Shiro." Keith smiled.

"Anytime little brother." Shiro smiled before gently guiding them down the hall and into a nice, big, spacious office with it's own bathroom attached and quickly pulled out a first aid kit and helped Lance sit down on the couch. "Hey." he whispered, gently hugging Lance and letting the boy curl into him. "It's okay, you're safe now."

Lance nodded and let Keith place an ice pack on his eye, hissing at the pain it caused him.

"I'm sorry babe." Keith murmured before gently wiping blood off of Lance's face and arm before sitting next to him and wrapping an arm around the crying boy. "Its okay, I'm here now, I won't let them hurt you again."

Lance shook his head, sobs making his voice shake. "You can't promise that, they've been doing this for a couple months. They're not gonna stop just because you threatened them, it's gonna be worse!"

Keith frowned and opened his mouth but Shiro beat him too it. "A couple months Lance? Why haven't you told me?"

"They haven't touched me till today." Lance mumbled, hiding his face into Keith's shoulder, noting how his boyfriend was trembling with barely concealed rage. "I thought I was handling it fine but not doing anything and just ignoring them."

Shiro drowned and stood up. "Do you mind if I take a quick picture of the damage they did to your face? I want something to show the Dean when I walk up there in a few minutes."

Lance nodded his approval and lifted his head for Shiro to take a picture before laying back on Keith.

"You guys can stay here as long as you need." Shiro said softly. "I'll be back in about 30 minutes if you guys want a ride back home?"

Keith nodded. "That would be nice Shiro, I don't think Lance wants to walk home."

Shiro nodded. "I'll make this quick then." He assured before leaving quietly.

Keith waited until he was sure Shiro was gone before turning to hug his boyfriend. He knew that Lance had been holding back his sobs for the last little while. "Its okay Lance, you can let it out now."

Lance hesitated for a second before he burst into sobs and Keith felt his boyfriends slim shoulders shaking with fear and sobs. He wrapped his arms tightly around him, feeling Lance's arms grip his shirt tightly and Keith winced as the ice pack his his shoulder and he gently removed it and let Lance bury his face into his neck. He held him for a few minutes before gently pulling back and looking into Lance's eyes, well _eye_ because Lance's right eye was almost swollen shut at this point.

"Lance what happened today?" Keith asked softly. "What did they do to you?"

Lance sniffled and wiped at his good eye with his hand and winced as he hit his nose by accident. "Mrs Myers read part of my essay the other month aloud for the rest of the class. The I wrote titled 'The Bravest Thing I Have Ever Done'.

Keith frowned, that was one essay Lance didn't let him read over before handing it in. "What is wrong with that?"

Lance looked away from him. "I wrote that essay about coming out to my parents, and the whole reason why I moved in with you and Shiro. I gave her permission to read it to the class, she wanted to show everyone how well I had written it. I quote, 'So much passion and thought went into writing this that I just had to share with the class'."

"Wow babe, that is fantastic." Keith breathed and hugged Lance. "You will have to show me when you are ready to."

Lance shook his head. "It wasn't, that's when everything started. I wasn't scared because this school is pretty accepting but… Andrew was in class that day and later that day they cornered me in the bathroom and called me names until I walked out. It went on for weeks… I thought if I left it alone then maybe they would get tired of it but today Mrs Myers praised my essay as she gave it to me and told me she would love to meet you as I made my boyfriend sound so sweet. I asked to go to the bathroom half way through class and Andrew came after me and he and his friends were all in my face and I finally asked them to stop harassing me and when I did Andrew threw a punch at me."

Keith opened his mouth to talk but Lance cut him off. "And then they just let loose, hitting me until I fell down and then they kicked me a couple of times and ran back off to class. I managed to get up and go to the bathroom here where I could lock the door, Shiro wasn't in his office and I don't have keys to it, so I called you and waited."

Keith stared at him in shock before gently pushing Lance away from him and pushing his shirt up. Keith gasped in horror as he saw the already darkening shoe prints and boot cap shaped marked darkening all over Lance's dark torso. He ran fingers over them gently and Lance hissed in pain. "Are you having any trouble breathing? How badly does it hurt? I'm going to kill those bastards."

Lance tried to assure him but Keith wasn't having any of it and he pulled out his phone to snap a picture and send it to someone before dialing number and speaking harshly when Shiro picked up the phone. "They beat him half to death Shiro, I don't want them going near him again! Look at what I sent you! There are boot marks on his ribs Shiro, BOOT MARKS! Please come back down, I wanna take him to the hospital and make sure he is okay. Okay, see you soon."

Lance protested as Keith hung up. "I don't need a hospital Keith, please Im fine, it only hurts a little to breathe…"

"It shouldn't hurt at all Lance." Keith's tone was firm. "You are going to get checked out, I'm already making an appointment with urgent care in an hour and you are going to go."

Lance nodded softly, wincing as the adrenaline from the day off and he slowly got this dazed look in his eyes and he leaned into Keith slowly. "I'm so tired." He whispered softly.

"Get some rest then." Keith said softly, running a hand soothingly through his boyfriends hair. "I'll take you to Shiro's car when he comes back."

Lance nodded and snuggled into Keith's stomach, already starting to fall asleep. Keith listened as his breathing evened out and frowned at the slight raspiness to the breaths, waning more than ever to take Lance into a doctors and to pumble those ignorant jocks into the ground for hurting the love of his life. He only looked up when Shiro entered the room softly and looked at him with a little bit of joy in his eyes.

"They won't be bothering Lance again, in fact they won't be bothering anyone in the school again." Shiro whispered before grabbing his backpack and jacket. "You ready to head over to urgent care and get him checked out?"

Keith nodded and gently picked up his boyfriend as Shiro grabbed both of their bags. "Thank you Shiro, thank you for everything."

"Like I said before, It's not a problem. You are my little brother, I would move the world out of your way if I could." Shiro smiled gently before looking to Lance. "Lance's too, he may only just be 18 but he is my little brother now too."

Keith smiled. "I'm glad you were able to get custody of him. I couldn't stand to be apart from him if he got sucked into the foster care and away from me."

"Well he was in foster care just in our home and not some strangers. It helped that he wanted to got to school here, and you were very close to him." Shiro was quick to assure Keith. "It was the most logical choice."

Keith shrugged. "You didn't even know I was dating him! I had been for months and hadn't told you and here Lance is almost a year later getting beaten up for writing an essay about me and you and his teacher reading it and jocks being the stupidest people on the planet."

Shiro shook his head in disbelief as he lead them out the doors and toward his car in the staff parking lot. "I really thought people would tolerate things better than that now, in this day and age, but I guess not. Anyway let's get this visit over so Lance can rest at home in your room."

Keith nodded and smiled as they made their way to Shiro's car, vowing to protect his boyfriend at all costs.


End file.
